By STEPHANIE LEE Staff writer

Updated 10:21 pm, Tuesday, May 10, 2011

SLINGERLANDS -- Five top officials at New Visions, the Albany County group that serves developmentally disabled clients, were fired Monday for undisclosed reasons, marking the latest in a string of leadership shake-ups, officials said.

The firings occurred just a few weeks after the 11 members of New Visions' board of directors were suspended by its parent organization, the statewide nonprofit NYSARC Inc., former board members said.

Marc Brandt, NYSARC's executive director, is now serving in place of the board as the sole trustee, Ryan Goodenough, a NYSARC spokesman, said Tuesday.

The employees fired this week were managers in departments that included residential services, program services and human resources, according to Jeff Platt, former president of the board of directors. Those individuals could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Goodenough declined to identify the employees or their positions or to provide a reason for the series of firings.

"Management problems came to our attention, we acted on that, and five individuals were let go," he said. He referred remaining questions to Brandt, who was said to be out of the office.

While the reasons behind the personnel shake-ups have yet to emerge, Platt said the board of directors faced scrutiny from NYSARC following a New York Times report in March that hundreds of state group home employees who sexually abused, beat or taunted residents often were transferred to other homes but rarely fired.

Platt said that, over the winter, the state conducted audits of New Visions' roughly 45 residences for developmentally disabled clients.

In about four of those homes, which house some two dozen people, the state found problems relating to fire drills, missed medications and housekeeping, Platt said.

Similar problems also emerged in a series of audits last spring, but in each case, the group submitted plans to resolve the issues, he said.

"They were being worked on, being solved," he said.

Platt said he found out his volunteer term on the board had been suspended via a letter from NYSARC last week.

The board members also were suspended from New Visions' Foundation Board, its fundraising arm, Goodenough said.